How important are computers in the medical profession? We GPs spend far too much time looking at our monitor rather than our patients, but the need to collate and analyse patient data to try to improve the NHS makes computerisation inevitable. The internet allows individual doctors access to research information that would have been beyond the country's leading university library just 10 years ago.

What computer do you use? I use an iMac for all my writing, a Toshiba laptop and a Packard Bell Le Div@2 PC. I'm a confirmed Mac fan due to their amazing reliability, but I'm now starting to switch to PCs.

What prompted you to open Surgery Door? There's far too much unreliable health information on the net and I came up with the idea of a one-stop shop for my readers and listeners. I initially offered the service to my Radio Times readers but it grew and Surgery Door seemed the logical step. We had our millionth visitor last year.

Can you envisage a time of diagnosis via the net? There can be no substitute for a face-to-face consultation and I don't offer diagnoses on the net. That said, the net can already be used to interpret data collected from a patient - a typical example would be a patient with heart trouble whose ECG (electrocardiogram) trace can be sent down the line to a cardiologist by a paramedic and advice sent back the other way.

Favourite gadgets? Maybe it's my age but I find it increasingly difficult to work the gadgets that interest me most. I'd quite like an in-car MP3 player, a DVD recorder, a voice activated typing package that understood medicine and one of those things Bones uses in Star Trek to find out what's wrong with someone.

Should we be cautious of medical information available elsewhere on the net? Definitely. When you read anything always check to see who has written the article and for whom they wrote it. Ask yourself about vested commercial interests and check the dates - is it old hat? Last but not least, stick to sites you trust. If you're reading an article on the British Medical Journal site ( http://bmj.com/ ) then it's safe to assume that it's pukka.

Favourite sites? I find www.google.co.uk fast and reliable and now use it in preference to many dedicated medical search engines. Also, www.ibank.barclays.co.uk because, for the first time, it allows me to do my banking when I want to. Not that it's helped my finances that much!

What will the internet be like in 10 years? I worry that people like me, who can't access the latest alternatives like ISDN and ADSL because of living in the sticks, are going to end up with second-rate access to the net as it becomes increasingly clogged up.